


Plant your hope with good seeds (Don't cover yourself with thistle and weeds)

by QueenOfTheQuill



Series: Your Candle in the Dark, Your Family and Your Spark [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Darcy Lewis, Because of Reasons, Bucky Barnes Feels, Comfort, Comfort Food, Darcy Lewis is smarter than they give her credit for, Darcy is a mother hen, Domestic Avengers, Gen, Hair Washing, Momma Darcy, trust building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 17:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2278752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfTheQuill/pseuds/QueenOfTheQuill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy gets a new charge in her nest of Avengers, or how Darcy Lewis takes care of Bucky Barnes, like the lost little baby he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Plant your hope with good seeds (Don't cover yourself with thistle and weeds)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Thistle and Weeds by Mumford and Sons. Though I’m pretty sure the events of Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier happen almost simultaneously (or at least very, very close together), here, Darcy and Jane have already been at Stark Tower for about a year before Washington DC explodes under the barrage of dying Helicarriers. The song Darcy sings is called “Sleepsong” by Secret Garden.

Steve tried to get Bucky into the tower unobtrusively, but nothing got past her. (She and JARVIS were bros, but neither of them ever told Tony how often they spied on the Avengers for their own good.)

 

So when Steve finally reached his apartment with the half-conscious Bucky Barnes, Darcy was waiting for him in the living with crossed arms, a tapping foot, and a med kit.

 

Steve winced, feeling almost as though he’d disappointed his mother or an aunt, but laid Bucky on the couch when she motioned to it. They both kneeled next to him.

 

“Hey Barnes. Seem to have gotten yourself beat up, huh?” Bucky’s head turned to her, his eyes glossed over and confused. “I’m Darcy, and Captain Tightpants over there is one of my best friends.” Despite himself, Steve smiled a little. _I understood that reference_ , he thought to himself. “However, he is also pretty much my ward, because superheroes cannot take care of themselves for shit. Which means that I’ve gotten pretty good at patching up these idiots because sometimes it’s just easier than trying to get them down to the docs. So if it’s ok with you, I’ll just take a look at what you’ve done to yourself and we’ll see if we need to get someone with a degree up here, ok?”

 

She waited for his permission before she asked Steve to help her sit Bucky up so they could take his shirt off. There were a lot of complicated buckles to undo, but eventually, they got his top half bare. Darcy hissed in sympathy at the large gash on his right shoulder, but began carefully inspecting it. She pulled the edges apart a bit, then let out a sigh, sitting back on her heels. “Well the good news is that it shouldn’t need stitches. The bad news is that you’ve got stuff in there, gravel or something, so that needs to be removed and then I’ll need to clean it.”

 

Steve noted and appreciated the way Darcy addressed her comments to Bucky, not to him. “I’ve got clean tweezers in the bathroom,” he told her quietly, already standing up to retrieve them.

 

“Thanks,” she muttered, already distracted gently feeling Bucky’s ribs. Steve disappeared into the bathroom, grabbing the tweezers as he heard a strangled hiss from the couch. He hurried back out to see Darcy clutching her jaw and glaring sternly at her patient.

 

“Well you have broken ribs for sure, although I’d thank you to keep still for the rest of this examination. I rather like my face; I only have one.”

 

“Darcy-”

 

“I’m fine Steve. He got me with his right hand, and I could tell it wasn’t full force. More of a knee jerk reaction than anything.”

 

“Do you want an ice pack or-”

 

“Later. I have to patch him up first. A bruised jaw is nothing compared to what Buddy Boy over here has going on. Ok, Barnes, this is going to hurt ‘cause I’m going to be digging around in your wound for shrapnel. If you need to hit someone, hit Steve. He’s closer to indestructible than I am.” She grinned at him. “Ok, here we go.”

 

Bucky’s jaw clenched and he stared off into the distance, but he didn’t move and he didn’t make a sound as Darcy pulled pieces of a now destroyed HYDRA base out of his shoulder. She kept up a constant stream of chatter and as more and more bits of rubble made their way onto his coffee table, Steve noticed that Bucky seemed to be focussing on her words instead of staring stoically into the distance.

 

“Damn Barnes, what were you doing, rolling on a gravel road? These little buggers are in there deep! Yeah, I said buggers. I went to London with Jane Foster, my boss, for a year-ish. Shit went down hard there. There were crazy aliens, there was an improbable astronomical alignment, there were crazy demi-gods. It was seriously whack business, but I totally helped save the world, so it was pretty legit. I hooked up with this British dude for about a week, but we decided we did better as make-out buddies when the adrenaline ran high and he got Super Secret SHIELD recommendations to places because he helped me help Jane help Thor save the day, so he can pretty much go anywhere in the science field he wants, although I kind of have the feeling he’ll get sucked into SHIELD. Although, maybe not, given how many snakes were in the grass on that one, and how it’s pretty much down in flames. Maybe he’ll go for a Stark subsidiary or something. You never know. Aaaaand, done. I got them all, but now comes the super fun part: hydrogen peroxide. The ‘please try not to punch me again’ order still stands, bucko, and this is gonna sting.”

 

“I can take it,” Bucky growled. Steve was shocked; Bucky hadn’t said anything at all to him since D.C. He’d spent hours alone with Bucky on the ride back from BFE Russia, but the other man hadn’t said one word. If he was being honest, he was glad that Bucky had spoken, but jealous that it was to a woman he’d never met before. Then again, maybe that was why.

 

As though this wasn’t a groundbreaking occurrence, Darcy was as glib as ever. “Yeah, tell that to my face. Here goes.” Bucky and Darcy hissed in unison, Bucky in pain, Darcy in sympathy. Pulling the towel away from the wound, she watched the bubbles seething as they cleaned infection out. She rubbed it off with another towel, this time damp with water, before dumping more peroxide on. She repeated the cycle until it barely bubbled at all, then placed a clean pad over the wound and wrapped an ACE bandage over it to keep it in place.

 

“That’s the only big one, I think. The little ‘uns need to be cleaned too, though.”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

“That wasn’t a question, Sergeant Barnes.” Darcy’s tone was joking, but her eyes held fire and brimstone. Bucky managed to hold her gaze for all of three seconds before dropping his eyes to the floor.

 

“Yes ma’am.”

 

Steve gaped. He knew he did, knew he was sitting there with his mouth open, but he couldn’t help it.

 

Who _was_ this woman?

 

Darcy cleaned the rest of Bucky’s wounds up, alternating between chatter and comfortable silence. “Right, all done,” she announced, pulling back from the last cut she could see. “If you have cuts that need to be cleaned anywhere else, you can do them yourself, because everything besides what I’ve already seen is the area that would get me arrested for sexual harassment. How do you feel, Barnes?”

 

“Better.” The word seemed to surprise all three of them, but Darcy did the best job of hiding it. “Then I did a good job,” she said with a grin. “Do you want to sleep or eat? Get clean? I can help you wash your hair if you want, since you shouldn’t get your bandages wet.”

 

Bucky thought for a long time, but Darcy’s calm expectation never wavered. “Food, then sleep,” he finally decided. “Cleanliness is extraneous in this instance.”

 

“I’m not asking you whether it’s necessary, dude. I’m asking whether you want clean hair. It’s alright to _want_ now, and to act on those wants.”

 

Steve watched Bucky struggle again for another few long minutes. “Yes. Please.”

 

Grinning, Darcy stood up. “Well alright then. Go into the kitchen, I think that will be the best place. I’ll be right back.”

 

Steve followed Bucky into the kitchen, watching his eyes dart to the knife block in the corner and to the window over the sink, cataloguing weaponry and exits. He was distracted when Darcy bustled back in with an armful of towels and Steve’s shampoo and conditioner. “Ok, we’ll just-” She dumped her armload of things onto the counter and pulled a kitchen chair over so it was sideways next to the sink. “Sit there,” she directed Bucky, pointing to the seat. “Back to the sink. Put this towel around your shoulders, please.” While Bucky complied, she ran the water, making sure it was warm, and took her place behind the chair back.

 

In a flash, Steve understood her arrangement. With the chair facing sideways, Bucky could lean backwards over the sink, but still feel like he had room to escape. Darcy had positioned herself away from the knives, potential weapons, and behind the chair back, which would hinder any attack she might attempt. Darcy had taken all of a trained spy’s possible sources of discomfort and carefully worked around them. Staring at her in amazement, Steve tried to figure out if she was a government agent or not. Even if she was, that level of awareness was impressive. If she was a civilian, it was ridiculous.

 

“Alright, now bend over the sink backwards so I can get your hair wet,” she was telling Bucky, picking up the pull out hose. Bucky leaned back, but didn’t relax, keeping his eyes open and tracking her movements warily.

 

“I’m not gonna hurt you, ya know,” Darcy told him conversationally, tipping shampoo into her palm. “But soap in your eyes might. Also, it might temporarily blind you, so you should probably shut your eyes. Besides, you’ll know where my hands will be the whole time because they’ll be touching your head. You’re safe Barnes.”

 

If the dubious stare was anything to go by, Bucky didn’t exactly believe that, but he did shut his eyes as Darcy began massaging her hands through his hair. “Lay down your head, and I’ll sing you a lullaby…”

 

Steve wasn’t sure who was more surprised when Darcy started singing, he or Bucky, but it apparently had the desired effect, because Steve watched as his best friend’s body relaxed by degrees until, halfway through rinsing out the conditioner, he was in a comfortable slump against the counter and Darcy had to nudge him to make sure he was still awake.

 

“Spaghetti sound good boys?” she asked, handing Bucky a towel to dry his hair with. Steve nodded for both of them.

 

“Sure. Need any help?”

 

She grinned wickedly. “You just asked a cook’s favorite question.”

 

In a flash, Steve was boiling water and and stirring pasta in while Bucky spread butter and garlic onto pieces of bread. Darcy was carefully mixing herbs into a jar of basic sauce she’d canned a while ago and stored in every Avenger’s freezer. She wouldn’t let either man see what she mixed in, claiming it as a “Super Duper Alley Ooper Secret Recipe” handed down in her family for generations.

 

Once everything was done, they sat down to the dinner table where Darcy continued to fulfill her role of mother hen by urging Bucky to eat and to “take some more, Barnes, I mean, for Thor’s sake, you _inhaled_ the first helping.”

 

Dishes were another shared activity before Darcy bullied Bucky into Steve’s spare bedroom, tucking him under a heap of blankets (the way Steve liked to sleep: he’d told her about the cold) and kissing him on the forehead, like a young child.

 

“Sleep well Bucky. You’re safe here,” she told him fondly, before turning out the light and herding Steve in front of her to the kitchen, where she finally grabbed her ice pack. He looked down at her in amusement.

 

“Looks like you’ve taken to your new charge quite well.”

 

“He needs me,” she said simply. “But by Thor, if he blows up as many things as Tony, I’m quitting. I can _not_ deal with one more exploding toaster oven, just because _somebody_ decided it needed an ‘upgrade.’”

 

Steve smiled sadly. “Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to be one of his issues.”

 

Darcy nodded, somber again. “I know. And I know he’ll have a lot of them. But Steve?” She put a hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “We’ll get him through it.”

 

He covered her hand with his. “Thanks.”

 

With a shit-eating grin, she added, “Now, you wanna talk about how that makes you feel?”

 

Steve groaned.


End file.
